- Simmons, Dan.
Flashback.
New York: Little, Brown, 2011.
ISBN 978-0-316-00697-2.
-
In the fourth decade of the 21st century, all of the dire
consequences predicted when the U.S. veered onto a
“progressive” path in 2008 have come to pass.
Exponentially growing entitlement spending and debt, a
depreciating currency being steadily displaced as the
world's reserve currency, and an increasingly hollowed-out
military unable to shoulder the burdens it had previously
assumed in maintaining world stability all came to a head
on The Day It All Hit The Fan. What is left of the United
States (the Republic of Texas has opted to go it alone, while
the southwest has become Nuevo Mexico, seeking to expand
its territory in the ongoing
reconquista) has become a
run-down, has-been nation. China, joined at the hip to the
U.S. economy and financial system, collapsed along with the
U.S., and its territory and resources are being fought over
by superpowers Japan and India, with U.S. mercenaries employed
by both sides. Japan, holder of a large portion of the debt on
which the U.S. defaulted, has effectively foreclosed, sending
in Japanese “Advisors” who, from fortified Green Zone
compounds, are the ultimate authority in their regions.
Islamic powers, with nothing to fear from a neutered U.S., make
good on their vow to wipe Israel off the map, and the New
Global Caliphate is mobilising Islamic immigrant communities
around the world to advance its goal of global conquest.
With the present so grim, millions in the U.S. have become
users of the drug “flashback”, which allows those
who take it to relive earlier, happier times in their lives. While
not physically addictive, the contrast between the happy experiences
“under the flash” and the squalid present causes
many to spend whatever money they can put their hands on to
escape to the past.
Nick Bottom was a Denver police department detective in charge
of the investigation of the murder of the son of the Japanese
Advisor in charge of the region. The victim was working on a
documentary on the impact of flashback on U.S. society when, at
a wrap party for the film, he and his girlfriend were killed in
what amounted to a locked room mystery. Nick found lead after
lead evaporating in the mysterious doings of the Japanese, and
while involved in the investigation, his wife was killed in a
horrific automobile accident. This tipped him over the edge, and
he turned to flashback to re-live his life with her, eventually
costing him his job.
Five years later, out of the blue, the Japanese Advisor summons
him and offers to employ him to re-open the investigation of
his son's death. Since Nick interviewed all of the persons of
interest in the investigation, only he has the ability to relive
those interrogations under the flash, and thus is in a unique
position to discover something he missed while distracted with
the case load of a busy homicide cop.
This is a gritty gumshoe procedural set in an all-too-plausible
future. (OK, the flashback drug may seem to be a reach, but
researchers are already talking about
memory
editing drugs, so who knows?) Nick
discovers that all of the mysteries that haunt him may be
related in some way, and has to venture into dangerous corners
of this new world to follow threads which might make sense of
all the puzzles.
This is one of those novels where, as the pages dwindle, you wonder
how the author is going to pull everything together and begin to
fear you may be headed for a cliffhanger setting the stage for a
sequel. But in the last few chapters all is revealed and resolved,
concluding a thoroughly satisfying yarn. If you'd like to see how
noir mystery, science fiction, and a dystopian future can be blended
into a page-turner, here's how it's done.
November 2013 